This finding might be consistent with the Ryan-Pitman Black Sea Flood theory. The time frame is about the same (Ryan and Pitman claim that Mediterranean waters broke through the Bosporus and flooded the Black Sea around 5500 BC.) That's 7,500 years ago--easily within the blue-eyed time frame. A sudden diaspora of blue-eyed Black Sea farmers would explain why blue eyes are so prevalent in Europe without resorting to a "survival of the fittest" model that says that a blue-eyed babe is really that much more attractive than a brown-eyed girl.

If there were blue-eyed farmers around the Black Sea in 5500 BC, one should be able to track where they went from there, using a combination of mitochondrial DNA and the unique gene for blue eyes. Ryan and Pitman use clues like agriculture and Indo-European vocabulary to support their thesis, but these genetic markers might help to confirm or disprove their theory.